Wednesday, April 30, 2008

The Future of Sports Journalism is DUMB and Unrecoverable

Check out this clever video of Buzz Blowhardinger's HBO rants and be sure to watch the ending.



I am trying not to beat this Will Leitch/Buzz Bissinger story into the ground because there are plenty of more intelligent writers who post on sports "blog" type sites for a real pay check that are much more eloquent than me on this topic.

While I am offended by his narcissistic John McCain like views of our world/future, it does not strike a deep chord in me because it is not my livelihood.

Plus, it is hard to reason or convince a crazy ranting old man. Maybe Will should have asked him for some of his Prozac.

I just find the whole thing shocking and amusing but not in a good or bad way. I have no idea if that makes any sense.

Taking Dickinger's advice, I will refrain from writing any more on this blog until I finish the W.C. Heinz columns that I am going to read tonight on microfilm at the city library.

Screw watching the Wizards elimination game as my whole existence as a sports "writer" depends on ingesting Heinz's literary wisdom.

I hear Horse Racing and Boxing are popular.

Props to Zubaz Pants Sports for creating the video.

Will Leitch's final thoughts about all things Bissinger on Deadspin and here is video of Will's appearance on Best Damn Sports show.

Mac Gs World

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

no big deal...do your homework...read some heinz...and then you can find out every single thing that happened in the wizards game tomorrow from a SPORTS BLOG!!! AND NOT A "MAINSTREAM" JOURNALIST!!!

Mac G said...

Exactly, Bullets Forever Rulz.

losloseeboy said...

Thanks for posting our vid.

We write over at www.zubazpants.com/sports

Dirtylaundry said...

After seeing the whole special again on HBO (after the great Sopranos episodes, nice lead-in by HBO by the way), the thing that strikes me the most is how Costas totally set Leitch up. I've always been a fan of Bob, and probably will be forever. But many of Bob's collegues, including Keith Olbermann, are on record saying how much they enjoy Deadspin. And you KNOW a lot of the better guys -- including Bob to an extent -- think what Will does is refreshing and needed. But here Costas totally left Leitch out to be attacked by this crazed guy who really had nothing to say.

Yes, some of these old guys who wrote were really good. And they're now DEAD. Which is exactly what's happening to all newspaper and print people. Why else are Mariotti and others gravitating to other mediums? Why did two of the best sports writers, who wrote for a top paper like the Washington Post, start a show called PTI?

And Costas spent the past few months reaching out to Leitch. I'm hoping Bob let Will know he was walking into a hornets nest with that bastard Buzz. If you watch the video again, you can see that Will knew something was up.

Mac G said...

DL, I agree totally that Costas enabled all of this and was definitely a conspirator.

Costas not knowing the difference between a crazy commenter and the writer just screams ignorance.

It reminds me of the one time I went to a US Senate hearing on Napster and one of the Senators admitted that he did not know how to turn on his computer! This was the man with a key vote in determining the future of file sharing.

Who came up with this type of panel anyway? Braylon Edwards does not blog or read them and Bissinger is stuck in newspaper stone age.

Arenas, Chris Bosh or any athlete that blogs would have been great. Even a old media type who sees the need for blogs but has constructive critiques of them.

Instead, it was just misconstrued personal attacks and focusing on all the bad things about them.

This panel was set up to fail and gang up on Leitch from the get go.

On some blogs that I read, mostly political ones, I learn more from the commenters than I do the actual post.

The media is extremely thin skinned and their frontal assault on blogs is pathetic.

The cream always rises to the top and not the other way around.

Yoknapatawpha Kid said...

Dear Mac Gs,

this is a great entry on the Bissinger/Leitch altercation! My name is Peter Ricci, and I am a college student and writer who currently contributes to 'Too Shy to Stop,' an upstart online magazine focused on culture and the arts.

I found you entry, as it would turn out, while doing research for my own essay on the legendary 'Costas Now' episode. I focus first on how much I adore Bissinger, but quickly change focus to how wrong he is regarding his stance on blogging and why.

If you have the time, check it out! I’d love for you to read it and comment.

http://tooshytostop.wordpress.com/2008/12/04/buzzed-bissinger-takes-a-narrow-minded-approach-to-journalism/

Sincerely,

Peter Ricci